


Surprising Usefulness

by vmprsm



Series: LC Destin [8]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Caezlo, F/M, FS-7 is a Bad Droid, Force-induced violence, Head Injury, Kylo Ren Throws A Tantrum, Major Original Character(s), Other, Starkiller Base, The Force, its by felix, kind-of stalking?, life in the first order, little creeper, oh no ive done it i said their name, yep you heard it here first folks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 18:04:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9670043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vmprsm/pseuds/vmprsm
Summary: i cant find a good ship name for destin/hux. dux? hestin? hustin? destux? all bad. GLC? has possible merit. i dunno man. im just a lowly oc shipper.i claim absolutely no accuracy for the portrayal of caez. im new there and i just love that gentle child. caez is a self-insert of caezsucksdangs.tumblr.com (please dont tell them im here)FS-7 is a droid of my own design.





	

The comm beeped, and Skyler groaned, slapping her ear to open the line. This was her first bit of sleep in twenty-two hours, the interruption had better be good.

 

“Destin?” The voice on the line said, quiet.

 

“Mhm?” She replied, rolling over and grabbing up her extra pillow, pulling it to her torso and wrapping her limbs around it. If this was a dream, it was a nice one.

 

“Why is your droid in my room?”

 

The question took a solid fifteen seconds to process, and in that time she yawned and snuggled deeper into her covers. As soon as it did, she choked on another yawn, bolting upright in bed.

 

_“Oh my stars.”_

 

“An appropriate response. Please come retrieve it.”

 

Hux said _please_ , but it came across like a kindly worded order. She was out of her bed in the next second, literally leaping up and stumbling on tired feet.

 

“I’m on my way, two minutes.”

 

She had the forethought to shove her slippers on her feet, fuzzy and covering up to her ankles, and to toss her coat over her shoulders, then she bolted out of the room.

 

Thankfully, all of the officer’s quarters were on the same level, and she scurried along in the dim light of the 0300 hour. When she knocked on Hux’s door, it opened swiftly.

 

She poked her head in. “Hux?” This felt strangely backwards of one of their recent interactions.

 

“This way, now.”

 

Not needing to be told twice, she padded in on silent feet and came up to his bedroom door, already slid open. She gasped.

 

The General was sitting up in bed, and FS-7 (Mark VII) was looming over the side, soft green eyes casting a sickly glow onto the man.

 

“Oh- oh jeez, I’m so sorry. FS!”

 

The tall droid did not move.

 

“I know your auditory sensors work FS, look at me!”

 

There was a disapproving beep, but no motion.

 

“Are you- really? _Felix_ , respond immediately.”

 

The once-medical droid straightened up, eyes moving to throw light onto her. _“Yes, LC.”_

 

She put a hand across her eyes, sighing angrily. “State your current objective.”

 

_“Assessing the health of the General.”_

 

“I have told you many times now, you are no longer a medical droid.”

 

_“Negative.”_

 

“What do you mean, negative? You're loading with engineering packages.”

 

_“Two active protocols are in place.”_

 

“Okay, I can fix that, but you have to come back to my room.” A pause. “Right now.”

 

Hux was looking at her as if she’d grown a second head. Shirtless, in the soft light of the overheads at only ten percent, he was practically glowing pale. That wasn’t something to judge on, unless your genetics put pigment in your skin, everyone was deathly pale in the First Order military. His hair was loose again, ruffled on the sides, and the shadows cast every curve in sharp relief. His back was rigidly straight.

 

 _“Completing assessment, order placed in queue.”_ The droid reached a manipulator towards Hux.

 

She gaped, yanking her eyes away from the General. “No! No, that is not how this works. Current orders override prior processes. Leave.” She pointed to the door behind her. “Now.”

 

The droid turned fully, and Hux slumped almost imperceptibly. _“Protocol adjusted. Current orders priority.”_ It started rolling out of the room, and Destin stood firm, watching it leave.

 

The room then became very quiet, and she tried to string a sentence together. “Again, sir, I am so, so sorry. I have no idea why it came in here.”

 

“Obviously its new programming is functional as it was able to override my lock code.”

 

She choked a bit on her saliva. “Di-did it?”

 

Hux gave her a droll look. “It seems that maybe my faith in you was misplaced in this specific instance, if at seven marks later your droid cannot follow basic protocol.”

 

That he knew that Felix-- _FS-7,_ she reminded herself angrily--was at Mark VII was surprising, how he knew meant he had probably been following her personal logs. Nothing was really personal in the First Order, but generally daily logs and note taking on personal datapads wasn’t scoured unless there was a concern with the performance or loyalty of the officer. The implications of _that_ little detail could be parsed later, but for now she had to dig herself out of this hole.

 

“Hux--Sir--” she stumbled verbally and almost shrieked at her ineptitude, “ _General_ , please believe me when I say I am still working on the bugs in FS-7, it is almost fixed, and it has so far had absolutely no access to the Starkiller mainframe or construction sites. As a technician droid its data pack included information on First Order lock code technology, it simply applied it inappropriately. This will not be an issue again.”

 

He stared at her for a few moments. “See that is isn’t, Lieutenant Commander.”

 

Destin wanted to kick herself. It was so obvious that Hux was tired, and for her to interrupt his hard-earned sleep with this disappointment was almost too much shame to bear. If they had a decent rapport before, she was probably shredding it as the seconds ticked by. His use of her rank was an obvious enough rebuke.

 

“Of course, Sir. I’ll go now. I apologize again.”

 

Before he could respond, she turned tail and marched herself right out of the room, down the hall, and to her own quarters.

 

 _Felix_ was standing in his corner, all six-foot-six inches of him. It. Destin snarled, stomped over, and snapped the back switch to off before the damn thing could turn around. The lights glowing across the chassis dimmed, and in the darkness she felt out her bed and collapsed in it, too upset to even think of crying.

 

-

 

“Destin.”

 

“Hmm?” Something felt familiar, but in her sleepy haze she could not put a finger on what it was. She kicked out lazily at the covers that had somehow bunched up above her feet, resulting in unacceptably cold toes.

 

“ _Destin._ ”

 

It clicked. Skyler jumped up and into wakefulness, the light on the chrono reading 0453. Her alarm would have gone off in seven minutes. “Yes, Sir!”

 

“Get down to the third quadrant of precinct twelve immediately, and bring that droid with you.”

 

She whipped her head around the room, searching for her datapad, shoes, anything. “Should I bring-”

 

“Immediately.” Hux’s voice was firm, but strained. Her anxiety skyrocketed. What had gone wrong?

 

“Immediately.” She replied, and found her slippers again. Slapping FS-7’s switch, which had now been set to off for two straight cycles in her petty revenge, the green lights of the droid slowly brightened back to life.

 

“ _Good morning, LC, how can I be of assistance?”_ Felix asked as she rushed to her closet for another robe. She couldn’t find one, and yelled wordlessly. Screw it.

 

“Felix, astromode now. We need to move fast, follow me. Do not follow any other orders until I say we’ve arrived. Do not access any pre-set protocols.”

 

“ _Affirmative.”_

 

The droid’s spine opened up, the panels whirling out and down in a spiral like petals that led to the flat plates stacking vertically inside of his lower half. As they did the droid lowered until his top half settled onto the bottom, latched together, and his head clicked into place, neck plates fitting into a hidden hollow. His arms telescoped in to match his new height. In his astromode he was only three or so feet tall, Destin had never bothered to measure.

 

“Good. Let’s go.”

 

12-3 was quite far from the officer’s quarters, much closer to the loading docks and heavy equipment storage. She ran as fast as her short legs would carry her, Felix rolling at full speed behind her, and as they arrived she was panting. Slapping the com in her ear, she gasped, “Sir, I’m here. Where are you?”

 

“Loading hangar.” He replied, and she hurried towards it.

 

The issue was clear as soon as she entered the hangar, and it was like a reoccurring nightmare that Destin had hoped she would never have again. There was a line of destroyed snowspeeders, along with scorched, melted lines in the wall panels and the scent of ozone. The culprit was still in the hangar, in what appeared to be a control room, the flashes of red and the whooshing sound of a lightsaber the equivalent of a thunderclap to her heart.

 

Why the _fuck_ was Kylo Ren on Starkiller Base again?

 

Hux stood off to the side, arms crossed over his chest and looking furiously at the room. He was watching the same red-brown haired figure from the transport ship so many months ago as they darted in and out of the room, yelling almost incoherently over the sounds of destruction. What a deadly game of chicken, Destin thought as she circled widely around the room to end up at Hux’s side. Felix rolled up to her right, perfectly quiet.

 

“What can I do Sir?” It was a subordinate request and also a real and semi-terrified question. She had always seen to the aftermath of a Kylo Ren meltdown, never having been present for one. She would have been happy to keep it that way too.

 

“Not you,” Hux said, not moving his gaze or shifting his weight, “the droid. Does it still have medical equipment?”

 

Destin gave him a confused glance, not wanting to look away from the glowing red inside the room for long, lest Kylo Ren storm out in a flurry and cut them down while she wasn’t paying attention. “It does.” That was a little embarrassing to admit, but getting to his rotating hand attachment rack was a bitch and a half, and she didn’t have replacement hands yet that would be more suited to technical work. It hadn’t seemed worth the effort to get to the damn thing twice when she could do it once later.

 

“Good.” Hux said. Good? What on all the moons did he want with a malfunctioning med-tech droid?

 

He looked down at her for only a moment while he spoke. “I need it to go in and incapacitate Kylo Ren.

 

“What?” Destin blurted, then backpedaled quickly. “I mean, how? So I can give it orders, I mean.”

 

Hus sighed, glaring forward again. She watched his eyes track the dodging figure across the hangar. “Usually, when Ren gets like this, I can command him to stand down, or Caez there,” he gestured vaguely at the flying hair and dark robes, “can yell him into submission. Neither of those options has proven successful today. They stated something about a vision, both flew here promptly, and when presumably Ren found or didn’t find something he was looking for, he went ballistic, as seen. Therefore, a sedative will be necessary, unless we would like to replace even more of this sparsely-furnished base. I personally do not.”

 

Destin was dumbfounded. She always figured that Kylo Ren eventually burnt himself out, or came to his senses. To have this strange, invisible support group, to have this ghost always there to assist, but to never have seen whoever _Caez_ was before their first meeting on the transport, was all a bit baffling. Nonetheless, she had been chosen to try and be one of those people, and she endeavoured to never let General Hux down.

 

“Sir, how would you like to approach this?”

 

A resounding crash echoed through the hangar, emanating from the little room, and she flinched. Hux was still. His stress was almost palpable.

 

“We need to get Caez away, otherwise they will attack the droid out of instinct. I am hoping its speed and unusual shape will be surprising enough that Ren will pause before slicing it in half, enough time for FS to succeed in an injection.”

 

“I can prep FS while you remove the obstacle, sir. We will edge to that side of the door,” she pointed to the left of the now-smoking opening, “so if you could go the other way?”

 

“Obstacle.” Hux gave her a tired little smile, amused by her wording. “Yes. With expediency, then.” He strode off towards the room, not the slightest hint of a falter in his step. Sometimes, Hux was truly awe-inspiring.

 

Skyler turned to the droid. “Felix,” she said, not wanting to fight with the creature at the moment, “we’ve arrived. Continue suspending processes beside my immediate orders.”

 

“ _Affirmative.”_ It beeped.

 

“Extended mode, and replace both current hand attachments with medical sedative for a…” she paused. There would have to be some assumptions made here, but oh well. “A human male of approximately one hundred and eighty pounds. Then follow.”

 

 _“Affirmative._ ” It beeped again, and for a moment Destin felt blessed that in this time of need, the damn droid would just do as it was told. She watched it extend its spine again, and the little black band across its chest rotate until it could fold both arms up and swap out hands. Current programming issues aside, the medical droid parts were quite well imagined for maximum utility.

 

They moved to the side of the room opposite of the General, who had managed to take Caez by the elbow when they had jumped out of the room again and drag them away from the origin of the chaos. They looked to be arguing animatedly and in hushed tones, but Hux glanced up at her quickly, widened his eyes momentarily, and she took that as her cue.

 

“Alright, Felix,” she said, looking up at the towering droid, “orders as follows. When I say go, enter that room, immediately proceed to the patient inside and sedate them. Use both doses if necessary, patient is a safety risk to themselves and others. Proceed to monitor vitals once patient is sedate. Understood?”

 

“ _Yes, LC. If patient rallies against sedation, orders?”_

 

She would assume that meant if Kylo fought the spindly reaching arms with needles on the ends. “Continue attempts. Call for assistance.”

 

“ _Affirmative._ ” The reply seemed forlorn in its low beep, but it was likely that Destin was simply projecting.

 

Waiting for the right moment, she was wound tight as a spring and crouched outside the door. There was a pause in the chaos, then a flurry of strikes again. No time better, she figured, and whispered “Go!”.

 

Felix rolled in, tilted slightly forward and arms halfway extended forward. Destin wouldn’t risk looking in, but there was a shout of surprise, a roar of anger, both presumably from Kylo Ren, a crash, the sound of something powering down, then blessed silence.

 

As Caez turned around, Destin was straightening. They locked eyes for a second and those greens burned through her, then they were running back into the room.

 

Destin was pulled up short by Hux, grabbing her hand and pulling her back. He disentangled quickly, but still she pulled her hand to her stomach and wrapped it in her other fingers.

 

“Wait. Let me.”

 

Hux went ahead and despite his warning, she followed into the room. It was, as expected, an absolute wreck. Every single console, keyboard, and instrument in the room was destroyed, and near the far left corner laid Kylo Ren in a crumpled black heap, with FS-7 almost plastered to the wall nearby. His lights flickered ominously a sickly green in the faintly glowing red-orange of the room.

 

 _“Order completed, LC.”_ It beeped sadly, and for some reason Destin wanted to hurry to the poor droid and check him over. She held herself back, deciding instead to hover near the door.

 

Hux had already crouched next to Ren, and put a hand to his chest. Finding it still moved, he pulled it away as Caez reached out to slap it. Caez had settled themself behind the man’s head, and had pulled his helmet off and set it in their lap.

 

“Did you use both?” Destin muttered to Felix. He beeped an affirmative and she sighed. The terrorizing knight was going to be out like a light for a few hours, Force or not.

 

“I’ll take him to medbay. Alone.”

 

For hearing their voice for the first time was...strange? With the weird looks and sharp eyes, it would be easy to believe they were mute. But their voice was cruel and emotional, rough with stress. It was an obvious match to the facial scars but incongruent with their slight frame.

 

“You can’t believe you can carry his bulk all the way there, you’ll injure--”

 

“I can and I will! Back off!”

 

Hux stood swiftly and stepped back. “Fine,” he spat, “as long as you don’t break any more of my base, enjoy your walk.”

 

It was hard to notice, but Destin knew a protective verbal assault when she heard one. Hux was hurt by the rejection, as much as such a powerful man could be, and his automatic response was apparently to push the offender away with cruel language. She frowned.

 

Moving around the pair on the floor to reach Felix, cursing herself as she did, she ran a hand over his upper chassis. “Damage?” She whispered.

 

“ _Minimal. Switch is causing power flux. It is jammed in the wall.”_

 

“Oh.” She replied, dumbly. Finding a flaw to the back power switch was not what she expected out of this day. With a hard yank to his upper half, he popped out of the wall and his wheels clacked to the floor. With a whispered command to stay, she cautiously approached Kylo Ren and the still-angry Caez.

 

“Hey,” she said gently, “I’m sorry about that. I can help you get him to medbay, or his quarters, if you’d like.” She held out a hand to Caez, like you would towards a wild animal. They were surely spitting like one.

 

“I don’t need your _help_ ,” they snapped, “I need you to go _away!_ ”

 

“Skyler!” Hux yelled, but it was too late. Without understanding what was happening, Caez’s hand was in her face, then it was moving rapidly away. Rather, _she_ was moving. Her back hit the wall with force enough to push all the air from her lungs, and her head cracked against the smooth metal panel. Entirely dazed and suddenly in a lot of pain, Destin slid to the ground, legs buckling as her feet hit the floor.

 

Hux’s face swam into her vision. “Destin? Answer me.” She could feel his hands on her wrist and her cheek. she gasped in lungfuls of air, not seeming to get enough.

 

“‘m okay,” she said, and lifted her free hand to the back of her head. With a wince, she pressed against the wetness there. Oh lovely. “Hurts.”

 

“Of course it does,” he replied, distracted, and released her face to pull her hand down. “Stop touching it. It appears that Ren will not be the only one visiting medbay. Let’s go.”

 

“Gimme ‘minute,” she mumbled, blinking and trying not the hyperventilate. “Can’t breathe.”

 

“Just focus on trying. It will pass.”

 

Easy for him to say, he didn’t have to do it. As Destin tried to take measured, large breaths, Hux shuffled to her side and looped an arm around her back. With slight effort, he lifted them both from the floor and stood still until she got her feet under her.

 

With Hux no longer in front of her, she could see Caez again. They were holding their hand in front of their face, the other was clutching at Ren’s cowl. Their eyes were wide and empty, staring at their unmarred palm.

 

Hux scowled at them. “This will be discussed later. You and Kylo Ren are hereafter restricted to Starkiller, and further, to medbay, until I give you clearance to leave. I expect a full and detailed report as to why you two took a ship off of the _Finalizer_ without authorization, and took it to this base, _again_ without authorization to land. I suggest you begin walking now, as the repair droids will be coming very soon, and you are not on their allowance list.”

 

Caez didn’t answer, and Ren was still out cold, so silence reigned in the wake of Hux’s demands. He turned them to leave, but Destin resisted. “Wait,”

 

“What?” He asked, annoyed. “You’re bleeding, let’s go.”

 

“C-caez,” Destin managed to say, the name now being associated with being assaulted by the Force, “I know you can probably...take Ren yourself, but Felix can help you. I’ll wipe...his memory after, if it makes it better.” She was grasping at straws as to why Ren’s companion didn’t want help, but maybe a non-human would be enough to get them to relent.

 

There was a moment of silence, then, “You should get to medbay. You might need stitches.”

 

Concerned but confused enough for the day, Destin simply nodded. Her breathing was normalizing, slowly. “I’ll leave him here. If you tell him to go back...to his corner, he’ll leave.” Felix gave an affronted beep, but she knew for a fact that it was hardwired into his programming to listen to that command. The only one, to her eternal dismay.

 

They got to medbay without further incident, and Destin sat dutifully still as her head was stitched closed and covered in bacta. It was very irritating that they’d had to shave a little patch of hair away, but in her customary bun it wouldn’t be noticeable. When it was all done, she stayed quiet, Hux sitting across from the cot in one of the visiting chairs. It was very reminiscent to her last stay in medbay, and just as awkward.

 

It was hard, but after a couple minutes she knew she would have to break the silence. “Hux, I’m sorry. I miscalculated.”

 

His hands were steepled in front of his mouth, and he spoke from behind them. “You will get a full set of brain and spinal cord scans tomorrow. You will be woken up every hour by your droid during your next sleep cycle, which will be immediately. You will contact medbay or myself immediately if you experience any worsening of symptoms. Is that understood?”

 

She opened her mouth dumbly, then closed it. Dropping her head down to look at the floor, her bangs slipped in front of her eyes. “Yes, Sir.”

 

There was the sound of the chair scuffing against the floor, and then his boots entered her vision. His glove came up, two fingers coming to rest under her chin as he tilted her face back up to meet his gaze. He looked...worried? Upset? Angry? There was such a mix that Destin couldn’t identify it, but it generally looked unhappy.

 

“This whole thing was entirely avoidable had you listened to me. You know nothing of those two. They’re dangerous.”

 

She looked away. “I am aware. I apologize again.”

 

“Stop apologizing.” He said sharply, and she twitched. If he noticed, he did not make it known. “I have heard enough of those from you. I want to know that you will not be so foolish again.”

 

Frankly, it would be exceedingly easy to say yes, sir, and watch his face soften, to see the storm of his eyes settle back into a calm sea. But that would be a lie.

 

“Hux, with respect, I couldn’t let you be in there alone. And if, in the future, I am in a similar situation, I will still try to help you. You’re too important.” _To me_ , she wanted to add, but held it back. It wasn’t time for any of that nonsense.

 

“You are also important.” He replied, and brushed her bangs gently away from where they rested over one eye. “Destin, either of them could have killed you easily.”

 

“They could have done the same to you.”

 

“They wouldn’t dare.” The storm in his eye was for a moment a tempest as his self-righteous rage rose, but it came down quickly as he wrestled it away. “Kylo Ren and I have...an understanding. Caez follows his word, to a point. They would not be so insane as to harm the General of the First Order flagship. You are but another officer to them, no matter what rank or considerable responsibility you hold. This project needs you.”

 

Clearly her head wound was considerable, as her next words entirely bypassed the decision-making and sensible part of her brain. “Do you need me?”

 

He looked confused, then unsure. His eyes flicked over her face, but she held only a questioning expression, despite her mind now screaming at her for being an idiot. He leaned forward slightly, then swayed back. Finally, his thumb rubbed over her jawline, fingers still resting gently under her chin.

 

“I may. I won’t know for sure unless you keep yourself from trouble. Please.”

 

The great and mighty General Hux, saying please? There wasn’t much to do but submit. “I’ll do my absolute best, then.”

 

Hux gave her that little smile that would melt her defenses every time. “Good.” Letting go of her chin, he pet her hair once, smoothing it back from her face, and stepped back. “Now, march yourself to your quarters. I’ll assure your malfunctioning droid is returned.”

  
“You should be happy he is…” Destin grumbled, but gingerly slipped off the cot and shuffled to the door, giving Hux’s smug face a halfhearted glare before she slipped out.

**Author's Note:**

> i cant find a good ship name for destin/hux. dux? hestin? hustin? destux? all bad. GLC? has possible merit. i dunno man. im just a lowly oc shipper.  
> i claim absolutely no accuracy for the portrayal of caez. im new there and i just love that gentle child. caez is a self-insert of caezsucksdangs.tumblr.com (please dont tell them im here)  
> FS-7 is a droid of my own design.


End file.
